Local reverend finds salvation from above

Stacy J. Willis

Monday, July 24, 2000 | 10:12 a.m.

The Rev. Tim Robinson recalls his depression with disarming candor, tossing around the phrase "my planned suicide" as if he were talking about an upcoming social engagement.

After being abruptly dismissed from his Louisiana evangelism seminary four years ago, Robinson, a lifelong Southern Baptist, came undone.

"It was the first time I had ever failed at anything," he said. "I thought I had failed my family and failed God."

But Robinson didn't find his salvation in a church. And he didn't find it by scrutinizing the Bible, nor by going to his religious mentors.

He found it by hiking mountains.

"It is unbelievable what this has done for me," said Robinson, who is now the director of Loving Las Vegas Southern Baptist evangelism campaign. "I hike, and I pray. I am closer to God."

Today Robinson is a "high pointer" -- one whose goal is to hike to the highest natural elevation in each of the United States -- from Florida's 345-foot Britton Hill to Alaska's 20,320-foot Mount McKinley.

"By setting this goal, and hiking, I've renewed myself," he said. While there are likely many hikers who have the 50-summit goal, only about 100 have done so and joined the High Pointers Club, an Internet-based registry of climbers.

In the last two years Robinson, 38, has hiked to 43 of the 50 high points.

Along the way he has encountered everything from altitude sickness to stranded hikers.

Robinson climbed twice to the top of Boundary Peak, Nevada's high point -- the ninth highest state highpoint at 13,143 feet.

"I've begun to see the country. You really learn to appreciate the diversity and culture of our country," he said. "It's made me very proud to be an American."

"The other thing I learned about was my self-esteem, about depression. A lot of men put their self-worth in what they do professionally -- and that's just setting yourself up for problems. When it all falls through, it can be a devastating blow.

"So for me, my self-worth is found in my relationship with God, and with nature," Robinson said. "It can be a very spiritual thing."